English

Galaxy Luminosity Function of the Coma Cluster from Deep $u'-g'-r'$ Wendelstein Imaging Data

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-11-03 v1

Abstract

We derive the gg' band galaxy luminosity function (GLF) of quenched red sequence in the Coma cluster from a deep-imaging survey with 1.5deg2\approx1.5\,\mathrm{deg^2} around the cluster center. The dataset comprises deep uu'-, gg'-, and rr'-band data obtained with the Wendelstein Wide Field Imager on the 2.1\,m Fraunhofer Wendelstein Telescope reaching median 3σ3\sigma surface brightness limits in 10"×10"10"\times10" boxes of (30.0u,29.6g,28.7r)magarcsec2\mathrm{ (30.0\,u',\,\,29.6\,g',\,\,28.7\,r')\,mag\,arcsec^{-2}}. We measure structural parameters across a large dynamic range in galaxy brightness (24.5gmagM11.3gmag-24.5\,g'\,\mathrm{mag} \lessapprox M\lessapprox-11.3\,g'\,\mathrm{mag}), from the brightest cluster galaxy to low-luminosity dwarfs, including compact dwarf galaxies and ultra-diffuse galaxies. We automatically identify 5161 cluster member candidates based on their membership on the quiescent sequence in the ugu'-g' versus grg'-r' color--color diagram and their red sequence membership. The structural parameters of bright galaxies are obtained via isophotal modeling, and fully automated parametric image fitting for faint ones. Injection-recovery tests and two identically analyzed reference fields provide statistical corrections for completeness and contamination, yielding a representative GLF that reliably probes the faint end and may serve as a benchmark for future studies. We report a best-fit double Schechter gg' band GLF with a comparatively steep faint-end slope α2=1.5390.024+0.024\alpha_2=-1.539^{+0.024}_{-0.024}. We perform an apples-to-apples comparison with the Coma counterpart in the SLOW simulations, finding overall agreement but a deficit of bright and an excess of dwarf galaxies in the simulation, despite its shallower faint-end slope, highlighting the need for true apples-to-apples comparisons that consider both normalization and slope for a consistent interpretation of the GLF.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.26889,
  title  = {Galaxy Luminosity Function of the Coma Cluster from Deep $u'-g'-r'$ Wendelstein Imaging Data},
  author = {Raphael Zöller and Matthias Kluge and Ralf Bender and Jan-Niklas Pippert and Benjamin Seidel and Claus Gössl and Ulrich Hopp and Hanna Kellermann and Christoph Ries and Arno Riffeser and Michael Schmidt and Luis Thomas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.26889},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

25 pages, 16 figures, submitted to ApJ

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:14:34.099Z